I had to comment, though, that the review refers to the game as being based on the anime a few times, but that really isn't true from what I understand. Other than featuring a character named Black Rock Shooter I don't think they have anything to do with each other. Rather, BRS started as a simple character illustration on pixiv, which inspired a popular Vocaloid song, which then led to figures and merchandising of the characer, and finally the anime and game. But story-wise...well, BRS never had a story in the first place. The details had to be made up. And it's not as if everyone made up the same thing...

Not sure what you mean by 'Vocaloid' there. The song was a Vocaloid song (Hastune Miku, specifically), but there was never a BRS Vocaloid character. The character began as just an illustration by the artist Huke.

I had to comment, though, that the review refers to the game as being based on the anime a few times, but that really isn't true from what I understand. Other than featuring a character named Black Rock Shooter I don't think they have anything to do with each other. Rather, BRS started as a simple character illustration on pixiv, which inspired a popular Vocaloid song, which then led to figures and merchandising of the characer, and finally the anime and game. But story-wise...well, BRS never had a story in the first place. The details had to be made up. And it's not as if everyone made up the same thing...

Yeah, it's weird I know.

^ that's one of those things that I'd call nuance but a fan would probably turn into the Roman guard and crucify someone on.

Thanks, Dice. :) I, for one, would certainly argue for your point of view. I see Kevadu's point, though, that "based on" can be more tricky than it seems.

In this case, as a reviewer, you have to decide how much info actually matters to the review. In this case, the game's plot is so bare-bones that it didn't make sense to delve any more deeply into the source material.

This is like that time I said in my review of of Chanteilse that it was the successor to Recettear and I got 20 emails telling me that Chantelise came out first in Japan. Yes, I knew that when I wrote the review, but it came over here after Recettear and that's what it's going to be compared too. ಠ_ಠ

I totally get what Tooker says about whether or not its important to the review. There is absolutely no need to include a paragraph detailing its bizarre history from song to game. Maybe if someone was making a big feature about the game, which seems more than it deserves, it would be included but a review isn't a wikipedia page.

Oh I will. :) It'd be pretty surprising. In about 5 1/2 years, I think I've averaged less than 1 actual email/PM per year regarding one of my reviews. I can remember one compliment, one complaint, and most recently, one question.

Of course, having heard from Kim about the responses she's gotten to her perfectly reasonable and high-quality reviews now that she's getting paid to do this, I'm not sure that more comments is a good thing.

I didn't look to see what anyone else had to say before playing. I just dove head-first. And while I agree with you that there's a TON of missed potential here, the core concepts of the game (both the mechanics of the combat, and the overall arc of the story) are fantastic as they are. For a $20 PSN game I'd have given it somewhere in the 80% range.

There are so many spoiler-specific details I want to talk about with other human beings. So if someone wants to start the spoiler /code stuff, I have things I want to discuss / analyze! I really like the bleakness of this world. I thought scenario writer Kazushige Nojima (whose other works I tend to enjoy) did a great job!

I actually like the lack of development for the characters. I love that the character who gets the most development, in his best moments, is Rothcall ... and ...

Code:

I love that his character just STARTS to become really interesting, and he has really interesting things to say about the resilient spirit of humanity, and then BAM cut down. That was an insane choice to follow through with and I think there need to be more stories that are willing to take that risk.